Happy Holidays from UCLA LOSH! This past year exposed the cracks and inequities in our public health, social, political and economic systems. It also highlighted the critical importance of safe jobs. Once hidden in the shadows, COVID-19 put worker health and safety front and center.
LOSH faced the challenge of responding to a growing number of requests for information about COVID-19. We have fortunately been able to work from home, transitioning to zoom meetings and virtual training, integrating COVID-19 information into our courses and working with our partners and our funders to advance policies to protect workers, their families and the public.
Thanks so much to all of you for your support in the past year. We wish you peace and a chance to relax and renew – and we look forward to working with you in the year ahead!
2020 has been a year like no other, presenting new obstacles that have affected our communities, our families, and each of us individually. The LOSH team reflected on struggles and lessons learned throughout the year. We share these below and welcome your reflections on how we can collectively support one another to sustain us into the future.
Greetings and all the best for 2021!
I am preparing, with mixed emotions, to leave my position as Director of the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Program and as faculty in the UCLA School of Public Health. I am proud of what we have collectively been able to accomplish while I also recognize the critical need to strengthen our efforts in the years ahead.
I want to thank the LOSH staff who have supported one another and renewed our commitment to workers as we faced the challenges of the past year. I thank our partners – some of the most dynamic and innovative leaders in the labor movement, the community, the university, and in our regional consortium – as well as our trainers and funders who make our programs possible.
Special thanks to former Director Marianne Brown and to long-time partner SoCalCOSH (previously LACOSH); both paved the way to bring me into the world of worker health and safety. And many thanks for ongoing support to the UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and the Labor Center – and to our long-time funders, the NIEHS Worker Training Program and the CA Commission on Health & Safety and Workers’ Compensation.
I am deeply honored to have received the Change Maker award from the UCLA Labor Center and the first ever Eula Bingham award given by the National Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (COSH). I have been so inspired by the awesome worker activists who also received awards and by my work with all of you over the years to build a movement that advances worker justice and safe jobs.
Together with our partners, we have been able to:
- Expand LOSH programs to protect workers from emerging threats – the coronavirus, wildfires, extreme heat and more.
- Support workforce development and environmental justice organizations to create sustainable jobs for workers.
- Expand innovative projects to connect students and interns with worker organizations as part of the Occupational Health Internship Program.
- Conduct research to inform critical policy decisions to protect all workers and communities from heat, wildfires, refinery and warehouse hazards – and to extend protections for domestic workers and day laborers.
- Strengthen the network of health and safety activists, young workers, immigrant worker advocates and promotor@s in Southern California and create avenues for dialogue between workers and government agencies.
- Train small businesses to identify hazards and engage workers in more effective health and safety programs.
- Support innovative public health programs to confront the pandemic, educate employers and build worker leaders to stop coronavirus transmission in workplaces, families and communities.
- Speak out for racial justice in support of Black Lives Matter.
Our annual WMD event was particularly poignant this year. So many workers right here in Southern California are on the frontlines and we know workers of color are especially at risk. Workers are tragically exposed to unsafe conditions in our hospitals and schools. They lack protection as they grow, process and sell our food, make our clothes, pack and ship our products.
The pandemic has highlighted the cracks in our public health, economic, political and social systems, further widening the gap between those with access to resources and those who bear the brunt of economic injustice, racism, lack of political power, and inequitable access to health care and job protections.
We are saddened and mourn the many who have died in the past year – and we commit renewed efforts to embark on a new year together, a year that respects diversity, dialogue and justice for all workers.
With gratitude,
Linda Delp
Photo taken during 8-Hour Refresher July course.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, LOSH made the tough decision of suspending all in-person training for the foreseeable future. Yet with some creative thinking and the support of several of our consultant-instructors, we have managed to transition some of our courses into “risk-free” virtual training experiences over the past several months. Above all, we have aimed to provide the same high-quality course content and interactive engagement in an online realm.
In the case of our hazmat worker training courses, LOSH has been proud to continue delivering high-quality safety courses for workers engaged in hazardous waste handling, storage, cleanup, and removal. We have conducted six virtual trainings to date, with participants across various sectors—from the California Department of Public Health to the U.S. Navy Corps—and from multiple areas of the state. We have certified over 120 trainees through these courses, and we plan to roll out a new calendar of virtual courses for 2021.
Comments from trainees after the course:
- Just really good all around. It is difficult to make things interesting in this zoom environment, but you all did a good job of choosing relevant topics and making them interesting.
- In 17 years, this was the best 8-hour HAZWOPER refresher course I have taken. Way to go!
- With the way things are anymore, it was nice to have this offered in virtual format, especially since I live/work in FAR northern California, and there’s not a whole lot of options for training offered close by.
- I like the use of white board on zoom-really great use of zoom features.
Jerrell Lewis, photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. Jerrell Lewis participated in the Summer cohort of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center’s workforce and leadership development program (Ready to Work). Jerrell not only successfully completed the program, but now has a career as a union worker! For full story on Jerrell, follow @labwc on Facebook and other social media.
Due to the COVID -19 pandemic, LOSH’s Environmental Career Worker Training Program (ECWTP) has faced challenges in promoting and integrating health & safety training into our programs.
In compliance with public health department guidelines, most of our partner organizations had to shut down their programs or quickly adapt to a virtual teaching/learning setting.
LOSH is pleased to continue supporting our partners at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center’s (LABWC)- Ready to Work (R2W) workforce development program through on-line classes. We provided a series of Health and Safety training and OSHA 10-hour certificate to participants that attended the R2W program beginning in May 2020 through November 2020.
During this time, the LABWC-R2W program recruited, trained, and graduated 31 individuals, in four cohorts, for a career in construction union and the City of LA’s Targeted Local Hire Program. Graduates continue to receive on-going support from LABWC in industry mentorship, occupational coaching, and job placement referrals.
Photo taken during WOSH Specialist training with Teamsters Local 2010 in August.
This year, the WOSHTEP team completed virtual Worker Occupational Safety and Health Specialist Training for two cohorts from Teamsters Local 2010. The interactive educational leadership course prepares workers to take an active role in improving health and safety conditions in their workplaces. The program covers topics such as COVID-19, wildfire smoke, and heat illness through a participatory curriculum which aims at reducing job related injuries and illnesses among California workers.
Comments from trainees after the course:
- I would never of known that this was the first virtual training from the quality of the course. I have completed several courses virtually and this was the best learning experience of them all.
- The virtual class sessions were well organized, easy to access, and overall went very smoothly both in the main and breakout rooms in Zoom. The instructors and facilitators presented the information in a well-thought-out format. The entire course was great!
- Everything that was presented was well thought out. It got each person involved and was applicable for your job and related field.
- The best course I have been involved in in my 40+ years. Thank you to everyone involved.
- Everything was great in this challenging online world for the first time hats off!
Photo taken during IIPP training with small business owners in August.
In collaboration with State Fund and Cal/OSHA, the WOSHTEP team also facilitated two 4-hour virtual Injury and Illness Prevention Program courses in August. This course teaches employers to develop and implement an effective health and safety program at their workplaces that meets the requirements of Cal/OSHA’s IIPP standard. Participants learned about useful tools to develop and improve their IIPPs as well as update their plans to prevent COVID-19 exposure at their workplaces.
Comments from trainees after the course:
- Class was wonderful. I specifically appreciate that the speakers were not monotone. It is much easier to learn from energetic speakers.
- I’ll be using all of the resources to figure out how to create and implement an effective program.
- Everything went well. The flow was perfect, time flew by!
- Would love to eventually have an in-person course but I have no suggestions, everything was great. Facilitators were great and break out room use was perfect.
The Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (UCLA LOSH), in collaboration with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and the California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC) released a new study, Hidden Work, Hidden Pain: Injury Experiences of Domestic Workers in California. The report offers insight into the injuries experienced by the domestic workforce of California, including housekeepers, childcare providers and caregivers and highlights the need for domestic workers to be included under California’s occupational safety and health protections.
Key findings from the report include that fifty-one percent of all respondents said they had experienced pressure from an employer to work in dangerous conditions and an overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) described injuries resulting in chronic back, shoulder, arm, or leg pain. Additionally, more than half of respondents continued to work, despite their chronic pain, out of financial necessity and fear of losing their job.
California’s 2017 Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation represents the most important advancement for industrial safety in America since 1992, when federal OSHA issued the first PSM regulation in the wake of the Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal India that killed as many as 15,000 people.
It is up to us to make sure the regulation is implemented and enforced – for safer refineries and safer communities. To that end, LOSH collaborated with the United Steelworkers (USW) to create four short videos that highlight the history and key elements of the regulation. They are designed for outreach and education with workers, community members, labor and environmental justice organizations. View full video series
